Ohio State Football Recruiting

[Highlifeman21]

I agree with your point that JT does a great job evaluating talent based on his rating system and not some internet geek that's never seen the kid in person, however, AJ Hawk is always used as an example of a lower rated recruit that flew under the radar and I think that is slightly overblown.

Hawk was a 3-star simply because he missed most of his Sr. year in HS due to an injury. He had been rated higher before the injury and was one of our early offers of that year. He was never considered a reach by any of the Ohio recruiting guru's (Duane Long, Bill Kurelic). Even with his injury both Rivals and Scout had him as a top 30 LB nationally and back then Scout and Rivals gave fewer kids 4 and 5 star ratings. As the internet recruiting business has grown, the "experts" realized that they sold more subscriptions when they gave out more 4 and 5 star ratings as the amount has nearly doubled in each category over the last 5 or so years.

D'Andrea is a great example of not getting too excited about the hype of some kids, but he battled injuries his entire career and even "retired" because of them. I think Jim Laurinaitis, Malcolm Jenkins, and Brian Robiskie are great examples of JT's ability to see something where the experts don't. Those three all came out of the '05 class, along with two other potential lower rated studs Anderson Russell and Donald Washington. Never has there been a year where so many kids that flew under the radar have made such an impact. Another potential diamond in the rough could be Chimdi Chekwa from the 2006 class. We'll see how he handles taking over for Jenkins next year.

Higher rated disappointments would be: Jamario O'Neal ('05), Kyle Mitchum, Albert Dukes, and Devon Lyons ('04), Louis Irizarry, Darius Hiley, and Brandon Maupin ('03), Mike D'Andrea, Justin Zwick, and Derek Morris ('02), and Mo Hall and Lydell Ross ('01).

I think Ross just failed b/c he wasn't a between the tackles runner. He needed to bounce out and use his speed. I think he was more of a wrong back for the system at the time.

[BuckeyeRedleg]

I think Ross just failed b/c he wasn't a between the tackles runner. He needed to bounce out and use his speed. I think he was more of a wrong back for the system at the time.

He also had incredibly bad balance. He seemed almost top heavy. He ran like he was on ice and it took nothing to take him down.

One of the worst backs I can ever remember suiting up for the Buckeyes.

Hate to say this, but he was soft as well.

[MWM]

I was wrong on Ross as well. I really thought he was going to be a stud.

[OnBaseMachine]

I was just reading a Terrelle Pryor update from yesterday and he mentioned that he doesn't really like OSU's style of offense. Here is his quote:

"That concerns me about Ohio State because they've never run an offense like the one we run at my high school or that they run at West Virginia, Florida, Oregon or other places. I'd like to see them run it first so I could believe they'll change it but I'm obviously not going to get to see that so it creates doubt.

Also, he has eliminated Texas and added Oregon to his favorites. He is now down to West Virginia, Oregon, Florida, and OSU with no leader at this point.

[traderumor]

I was just reading a Terrelle Pryor update from yesterday and he mentioned that he doesn't really like OSU's style of offense. Here is his quote:

"That concerns me about Ohio State because they've never run an offense like the one we run at my high school or that they run at West Virginia, Florida, Oregon or other places. I'd like to see them run it first so I could believe they'll change it but I'm obviously not going to get to see that so it creates doubt.

Also, he has eliminated Texas and added Oregon to his favorites. He is now down to West Virginia, Oregon, Florida, and OSU with no leader at this point.

If he is talking about the read option, that would be correct, but they also ran the spread most of last year with Smith back there.

[LoganBuck]

I was just reading a Terrelle Pryor update from yesterday and he mentioned that he doesn't really like OSU's style of offense. Here is his quote:

"That concerns me about Ohio State because they've never run an offense like the one we run at my high school or that they run at West Virginia, Florida, Oregon or other places. I'd like to see them run it first so I could believe they'll change it but I'm obviously not going to get to see that so it creates doubt.

Also, he has eliminated Texas and added Oregon to his favorites. He is now down to West Virginia, Oregon, Florida, and OSU with no leader at this point.

The word on this update from OSU sites, is that it is a subscription drive quote. Lots of people are going to pony up 9.95/month to find out where he goes. It creates buzz. He is rooming with Brewster all week, in San Antonio for the Army All American game.

[MWM]

Anyone believe Rodriguez going to Michigan changes things with Pryor. I've been doing some reading online this evening and I think Michigan has to be the favorite to land him at this point. But it all depends on his criteria. Apparently, he was a big Troy Smith fan and likes how they ran the offense with him at QB.

Also, he's really close to a lot of the players already committed to OSU, especially the O-lineman. And it actually looks like OSU has a decent chance of landing Josh Jenkins. If they do, this will be the best O-line class in OSU's history. Hopefully that will factor into his decision as well.

There are some worries that if Pryor commits to Michigan, that could sway some of the others to follow suit. I'm not sure if that's really something to worry about or not.

But Rodriguez to Michigan could have some profound impacts on this year's recruiting class.

[Buckeye33]

Anyone believe Rodriguez going to Michigan changes things with Pryor. I've been doing some reading online this evening and I think Michigan has to be the favorite to land him at this point. But it all depends on his criteria. Apparently, he was a big Troy Smith fan and likes how they ran the offense with him at QB.

Also, he's really close to a lot of the players already committed to OSU, especially the O-lineman. And it actually looks like OSU has a decent chance of landing Josh Jenkins. If they do, this will be the best O-line class in OSU's history. Hopefully that will factor into his decision as well.

There are some worries that if Pryor commits to Michigan, that could sway some of the others to follow suit. I'm not sure if that's really something to worry about or not.

But Rodriguez to Michigan could have some profound impacts on this year's recruiting class.

If Pryor ends up at UM, he'll be a junior before there is enough talent there to run Rodriguez's offense effectively. If he wants to play every down his freshman year, then UM is the place for him.

Everyone keeps saying that Pryor might not come to OSU because we don't run the spread offense, this is true only in the fact we do not run the read option spread offense. Hopefully Pryor realizes that Tressel will always and has always based what offense his teams run on the talent available.

'01 championship team ran, ran, ran, punted, played unreal D and won.

Every year Troy Smith played they ran the shot-Ginn, 4-5 wide offense because they had the talent to do it.

Tressel will allow Pryor to use his talents if he decides to come to OSU. I hope he does.

As far as him luring other recruits to UM, I don't see that happening as ALL the guys in the "Brew Crew" as they've been called committed to OSU very early and have since kept in Pryor's ear.

[LoganBuck]

Keep in mind that Pryor is going to be the focus of the recruiting wars the next six weeks. He is going to be building his name recognition. He is going to say anything to anyone. People will be obsessing over what he eats for breakfast, or what shirt he wears. If you follow recruiting at all, just remember we are about to get into the misinformation stage, where the remaining five star recruits, turn the spotlight on themselves, and it gets really ugly.

With all that being said, I think he ends up in Columbus. The "Brew Crew" has been/will continue to be tight with him. A great quarterback, needs a great offensive line, he will have that in Columbus.

[MWM]

Everyone keeps saying that Pryor might not come to OSU because we don't run the spread offense, this is true only in the fact we do not run the read option spread offense. Hopefully Pryor realizes that Tressel will always and has always based what offense his teams run on the talent available.

Supposedly he and Tressel and pretty close and Tressel has told him the offense they ran with Troy Smith is the one they'll run with him. If he doesn't wind up in Columbus, it won't be because he doesn't think they'll run an offense suited for him.

If he winds up in Ann Arbor, that means either one of two things.

1 - Ryan Mallet would almost certainly transfer. The guy was an absolute stud in high school and is not goig to sit back while the top recruit comes in to run a different system. Will Coach Rod be conent to run a freshman out there his first year in Ann Arbor? But will Mallet work in Rod's system? Both interesting questions. Coach Rodriguez has run a more pass style offense in the past at Tulane.

2 - He's got to beat out Mallet for the job. And if he doesn't do that his Freshman year, it will be really difficult to unseat him after that.

But with recruits, you just never know. Supposedly, he says even Oregon is high on his list. And he's still looking at Florida as well. Can you imagine an 18 year old kid being sold in Gainevill Florida in the winter with Tebow and Urban Meyer to show him around. That would be tough to turn down. But Florida has Cameron Newton from last year who is the heir apparent to Tebow. So he's got mass competition there. But who knows. Nothing would surprise me.

[bucksfan2]

Supposedly he and Tressel and pretty close and Tressel has told him the offense they ran with Troy Smith is the one they'll run with him. If he doesn't wind up in Columbus, it won't be because he doesn't think they'll run an offense suited for him.

If he winds up in Ann Arbor, that means either one of two things.

1 - Ryan Mallet would almost certainly transfer. The guy was an absolute stud in high school and is not goig to sit back while the top recruit comes in to run a different system. Will Coach Rod be conent to run a freshman out there his first year in Ann Arbor? But will Mallet work in Rod's system? Both interesting questions. Coach Rodriguez has run a more pass style offense in the past at Tulane.

2 - He's got to beat out Mallet for the job. And if he doesn't do that his Freshman year, it will be really difficult to unseat him after that.

But with recruits, you just never know. Supposedly, he says even Oregon is high on his list. And he's still looking at Florida as well. Can you imagine an 18 year old kid being sold in Gainevill Florida in the winter with Tebow and Urban Meyer to show him around. That would be tough to turn down. But Florida has Cameron Newton from last year who is the heir apparent to Tebow. So he's got mass competition there. But who knows. Nothing would surprise me.

It would be a bad bad move for Rodriguez to run Mallet out of town in his first year at UM. Mallet was a huge recruit coming in last season and played ok for a frosh in his limited playing time this year. 18 year olds are very fickle kids and a move to run out a huge recruit probably wouldn't sit well with a lot of those kids.

I don't see him going to Florida. The reasoning behind that is I don't know if Tebow will be an NFL ready QB after next season. He is a very good college QB but I don't think his passing game fits the bill for the NFL yet nor do I think it will after next season. Pryer sure isn't going to take snaps away from Tebow.

Don't know much about Oregon's backup situation but I would assume that if Pryer did come to OSU he would get similar playing time to what Tebow did last season at Florida. I would assume that as a top notch QB you not only want to succeed as a college QB but you also want someone who is going to prepare you for a career in the NFL. As a strict option QB you odds of playing QB in the NFL are slim to none. If Pryer follows the same maturation process as Smith does then he may be the #1 overall pick in the draft. If he follows the same process as Pat White has then he is a huge question mark as to where he plays in the pros.

[MWM]

Was reading some opinions online today and there are a couple of places that think Rodriguez to Michigan means Pryor will be in Ann Arbor. Rod's system was always his favorite, but he viewed WVU as a regional school. So Coach Rod + National school = Pryor is happy.

Not sure I buy it completely, but if I had to handicap it right now, I'd say he's in Ann Arbor next fall.

[MasonBuzz3]

i don't think that it is a forgone conclusion that Mallet will be out in Ann Arbor. Mallet, while no Pat White, is not a stiff in the pocket. He does not have the escapability of a Pryor, but can tuck it and get some yards. RichRod was the Offensive Coordinator at Tulane when a Shaun King-led offense took the Green Wave to a perfect season. King, while mobile, was not a great running threat. A Mallet - Pryor combo would be pretty effective

[Caseyfan21]

I'm not as sold on Pryor as most are. So far he's done nothing but scream for attention and guys like him continue to scream for attention in college; they don't suddenly change. Look at Beanie Wells, he committed to OSU with no fanfare his junior year and he was a nationally ranked top prospect like Pryor. He's come in and quietly done a great job, keeping his head down and working hard.

Meanwhile Pryor draws this episode out further and further and even contacted Scout to tell them he suddenly has an interest in UM. He just needs to shut his mouth and make a decision already.

Not to mention he wants to do football and basketball. What athlete has successfully done this for 4 yrs during college? Julius Peppers and Rickey Dudley both tried to do it and couldn't do it for 4 yrs. I think any time he spends with basketball would just take away time he could be using to improve his football game in the offseason.

Finally, he won't even be getting much playing time for OSU anytime next year. Boeckman should start and Henton has played his way back into favor. As I understand it, Henton has been practicing as the #2 leading up to the bowl game. I feel comfortable with Henton as our QB for the next few years, comfortable enough to not really care what Pryor decides to do. If OSU can get him then great and I'll certainly enjoy his contributions but if not no hard feelings - he certainly wouldn't break an already great recruiting class for next year.

[max venable]

Great post Caseyfan21. Especially the observations about Pryor and his seemly "look-at-me" approach.

I've got a buddy from Pryor's hometown who tells me that Pyor is totally a "me first" guy. Sick talent but focused on the wrong things (can you say Clarett?).